With the weather warming up, Holly has been getting her herb
seedlings going. Last year we had a fantastic crop of chives, basil
and oregano. Considering the small space available (one window sill)
we had an incredible crop. The basil variety, in particular, was
fantastic with massive leaves from a relatively small plant.

This year we want to grow Vietnamese Mint (also known as Vietnamese
Coriander. You can find the fresh herb in most greengrocers in
Sydney, but I have yet to see it anywhere here in the UK. It's
absolutely vital for Vietnamese cold rolls (goi cuon) and works well
in stir fries. It's mildly minty and quite spicy.

So I figure we can grow this through the Summer here in London if
only I could find some seeds. No luck with a solid hunt around the
net. Any ideas? Even importing them would be okay.

Tags

I normally buy Cafe
Direct's fair trade coffee but there was a special offer last week
on Union Coffee Roasters'
coffee. This morning I opened the first
packet and it's absolutely sensational. Really delicate, complex
flavour. Filled the flat with a delicious smell. I think I've found
my new brand.

Tags

I've had one of these Logitech Trackman Marble FX trackballs for
about eight years. Best pointing device I've ever owned
ergonomically. The beauty of the design is that you don't twist your
wrist. It's also one of the early opticals, so the only time you need
to clean the rollers is when they physicially stop the ball from
moving. The ball is nice and big, which gives you good control.

Sadly this one is now dying. The ball sensors are fine, but the
right-click button is having trouble recording clicks and that's
getting annoying.

So any suggestions for a trackball as good as this? As often
happens with capitalism, this is a great product so it's been
discontinued.

Tags

A couple of years ago I bought an Ipaq 3100 with a dud battery for
£15 on eBay. My plan was to get it to do wireless music
streaming so I could play music in another room without running cables
from my computer.

Last night I finally got it working. I'm using esd and can play
things from the computer, but I can't get esd with a remote server to
work with mpd, my music player
of choice. Will keep hacking on that.

Eventually I'd like to get it to work with a remote control, since
it has serial on it. To test that out, I'll need a 9-pin null modem
adapter. Anyone got one I can borrow?

When I get right into it, I might even end up with a user interface
so I can see what track is playing. That would be cool.

Tags

Guess who managed to wash his mobile phone with a pair of trousers
over the weekend? Doh! Amazingly, the thing still works. I let it
dry out overnight, then tried switching it on and it's fine. Screen
looks a bit odd, but otherwise works fine. Clean too.

Tags

Looks like my work Windows XP machine ate itself on Friday.
Completely destroyed itself. Impressive considering I hadn't
installed any new software (except last week's Windows updates?).
Doesn't seem to be a hardware problem so far. Ubuntu live CD works
fine, and a memtest hasn't shown any problems. Quality software, this
Windows.